Just curious what you all do to help the people around you vote?
Reader Interactions
47Comments
Comments are closed.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.
You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.
I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.
Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.
Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.
A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals
Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?
Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.
Only Democrats have agency, apparently.
No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.
The willow is too close to the house.
Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard
You can’t love your country only when you win.
Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?
It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.
Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.
I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.
When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.
When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.
Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.
This fight is for everything.
In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.
I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.
Second rate reporter says what?
Steve in the ATL
I live in a heavily republican area, so I do nothing to encourage those idiots to vote.
For the sane people I know, I try to call their attention to an issue or two that’s important to them and give a bullet point or two about who is trying to help their cause and who is trying to hurt it.
MisterForkbeard
I guilt-trip them about the future my two young daughters will have.
Just kidding. I encourage voting, talk to people about issues, and usually offer to give rides. Can’t this year (I’m out of the country on election day) but I can still help people register for voting-by-mail.
hervevillechaise
I tell people the truth: if I find out they didn’t vote I’ll creep into their homes while they sleep and stab them to death with a democratic candidate’s yard sign.
khead
I yell at them on the Internets. I also show them pics of my cats occasionally.
Martin
Election day is my birthday, so I ask them to vote as a gift to me.
O. Felix Culpa
I’m lucky that virtually all my neighbors, friends and family are Democrats and voters (except for my fundamentalist in-laws, with whom I interact little -for obvious reasons). As for encouraging others to vote, we held a postcards to voters coffee this morning in my village, completing around 200 postcards. People had so much fun that we’re doing it again Tuesday afternoon. It was a good, communal activity. I’m also canvassing as much as possible in the next few weeks leading up to Nov. 6.
Florida frog
I connected a family to our local organization that helps people get the right documents. In the case of a Woman whose dad was a U S service member but her mom was Japanese, and she was born in Japan, that got complicated. Mostly, it worked out. The son voted straight Democratic in Georgia ( go Stacy Abrams). I‘ m still working on the mom and the dad is so afraid of the government, it might take me to 2020 for him but it is my personal project to help this family vote
Viva BrisVegas
I don’t have to have to do anything. It’s compulsory.
Florida frog
I forgot to mention the my yoga class has been sending postcards to voters for well over a year. We feel like we own a teeny tiny bit of victories like Doug Jones and Conner Lamb among many others. The big push right now is to restore voting rights to felons who have served their time and made all legal restitution. Many more postcards to come in the next few weeks but we are cautiously optimistic
zhena gogolia
I remind my husband that morning that he has to go.
As for my neighbors, like Steve I try to make sure they don’t know what day it is.
FlyingToaster
We have a lot of older people on our block, who all vote and have a carpool going so they go vote together. So mostly it’s reminding the interns at school (all ed students in teacher training) and throwing cash at GOTV efforts, like our local DTC.
This is a heavily Democratic area.
lamh36
I harass them social media and bombard them with articles about the importance of voting and on all the suppression efforts by GOP.
OT but can’t wait to head what Betty C and Adam thought i’d the Florida GUV Debate tonight.
Jackie
My daughter and family just moved to Florida. Guilted daughter into registering to vote. I can’t fill her ballot for her, but I’m sending her links to help her decide. Her Gpa passed away this year, and he was avid about voting. He – at 99.5 yrs old – was also a very strong Democrat. She married into a politically mixed family – but fingers crossed – she votes as she was raised ????
Gravie
Vote-by-mail in Oregon, where I live, so I don’t have to help them, exactly. I do GOTV canvassing, phone banking, postcard writing, texting; put up candidates’ signs along roadways; volunteer for our Democratic congressional candidate’s online newsletter. None of it seems like enough but I do what I can do.
Ohio Mom
I’ve been texting with the 23 year old Stein voter I know for months now, trying to convince him that voting for Democrats is a better bet than waiting for the revolution to start (and pointing out that the revolution may not go his way). This has been a long-term project and will probably not pan out in time for this election however.
I’ve also been dragging around my 86 year old friend who just moved back to Cincinnati a couple of months ago to get her papers in order: took her to the Board of Elections to register, and this week it’s getting an Ohio driver’s license. I think she actually has enough ID without the driver’s license but I want to be sure.
Over the summer I checked with the moms of some of Ohio Son’s peers to make sure their sons were registered; I thought they might not have considered that since the guys all have autism (didn’t check with the Republican families). I was glad to hear they’d all registered and learned that two of the guys have been obsessing anxiously over Trump. I would say they were persevering as only spectrumites can except in this instance they aren’t behaving any differently than most of the neurotypicals I know are.
These are admittedly small efforts but most everyone in my circles are Democrats who take voting seriously as a matter of course.
Lalophobia
Open thread? So….anyone see Doctor Who today?
rikyrah
I can’t wait to hear how the Floridians thought the Governor debate went.
Hint.. I could watch Gillum’s answer to
“Is Dolt45 a good role model for children?”
On an endless loop ??
Poptartacus
I tell them I’d like my kids to have a future that doesn’t involve cannibalism
Joseph A. Miller
Starting on 14 February, I have posted GOTV diaries/stories on the nation’s largest progressive website. Here’s my latest one:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/21/1806043/-WE-RE-COMING-INTO-THE-HOME-STRETCH-Look-Here-to-See-What-YOU-Can-Do
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I vote early and then wear my “I Voted” sticker until it falls off.
I know, lame. I do give regularly to various ActBlues for Dems in other parts of the country, and I guess some of that goes, directly or indirectly, into GOTV efforts?
I should give more time and effort, but sometimes all I can spare is money.
rikyrah
I tell people about Early Voting and mail voting options.
jacy
I make sure all my people have checked their voter registration, know their polling place and the hours it is open, have a plan to get there, and have knowledge of every race and issue on the ballot. (Usually print out a sample ballot so we can discuss everything they vote on.) If someone needs a ride, make sure they have it. Then, we have a hierarchy for voting if they feel like they’re unsure of someone in a race. First, always vote for the Democrat. If there is more than one democrat, always vote for the a woman or person of color first if that choice is available.
Shana
With Hubby and older daughter I don’t need to do anything. Younger daughter, who’s definitely a Dem but not politically active, went to college in Illinois and grad school in Massachusetts so I encouraged her to vote absentee in Virginia where she grew up. She’s now moved to Texas so I told her she needed to register there and she’ll definitely vote there.
MIL lives in Ohio and Hubby is visiting her there. He was helping her fill in her absentee ballot today and asked me to research how she should vote on a couple of offices which I did.
debbie
The Republicans I know I’m not speaking to. Everyone else already knows to vote; most will have voted early anyway.
debbie
@Shana:
How did she vote on Issue 1?
Sandia Blanca
Taught my Sunday School class lesson today, all about how/where to vote (early voting in Texas starts tomorrow!), who’s running in the key races, where to get information, sample ballots, etc. Our ballots in Austin will be lengthy, with judges at all levels, county, city, and local school board races, plus city bonds and propositions. Of course the one race we’re all very excited about is Beto! We’re hoping he has some coat-tails for the down-ballot races. This is the last election we’ll be able to use the straight-ticket button.
Sandia Blanca
One friend handed out sheets of “I Voted” stickers–she advocates voting early and wearing a sticker every day to help remind those you see as you go about your daily activities.
Bruuuuce
Making sure my sister in Florida votes. Not so much my BiL, whose vote is unreliable. Likewise, I will make damned sure my 20-year-old son drags himself to the polls when I do. Haranguing most of my co-workers (who are ardent Dems except for one, whom I want to lull). Aside from that, sadly, not much.
r€nato
I run the polling place at our community clubhouse. I try to help Democratic friends to fill out their ENTIRE ballot, including those obscure school board races and the obscure ballot initiatives.
(Anything our GOP Legislature puts on the ballot, should be voted against.)
dww44
Well, I just volunteered to phonebank (and I hate phonebanking as a rule) for a local Dem candidate for a state house race from a nearby district. She deserves a leg up.
And I am helping a 91 year old friend, who had to give up driving about a month ago, obtain an absentee ballot. Have given her a dummy ballot available from the grocery store, printed out the Wikipedia info on Stacey Abrams and have asked her to please not vote for Brian Kemp, even though she’s a lifelong committed Republican voter and supporter. I probably won’t succeed in this, but I also gave her a list of the approved write-in candidates for Governor, so at the very least she might not vote for Kemp.
Amir Khalid
In Malaysia, the Election Commission makes public announcements reminding the people to vote, and mails us information on which polling station to go to. And always holds elections on a weekend.
Under the post I see a double arrow to the left and a double arrow to the right,but the accompanying previous-post and next-post titles are wrong. What gives?
westyny
I vote early and often! /s Harangue my students and former students, gave money to ND Sovereign Nations, Heidi, Beto, and Delgado upstate. Still a couple weeks to go.
Yutsano
@Joseph A. Miller: Thank you for this bit:
I think there might be just enough lift even after her faux pas to get her over the hump again. She definitely needs to sell the soybean issue. And she stated in an interview to WaPo that she felt pretty comfortable in her numbers.
But I’ll try to help as much as I can.
ruemara
Well, I gave up even trying to meet my deadline of the 31st for this script. I donate more money than I should, at least this year. My facebook feed is a running news blog of what’s at stake, upcoming registration deadlines, volunteer info and other stuff. I remind people about downticket races, the importance of judgeships, state legislators and can be counted on for researching even their local race issues & propositions. This year I’ve had a lot of people thanking me for the reminders and the info, so I guess I’m doing alright. I wish I could convince more people I know to stop getting into internet fights and sharing memes and statii instead of actually going out and working but, I can’t tell grown people anything more than we need them to work. I live in a very blue area but if I could, I would be driving folks to the polls, etc.
piratedan
i tend to plant willow trees close to houses of Republicans, its a long term plan of stealth to both frustrate them to move or spend all their free time performing maintenance on their water/sewer lines….
VeniceRiley
I’m social media sharing some JUDGE thumbs up/down on fb because that is the thing that confounds everyone every time. I swear I DM my local lawyer friend and even he doesn’t know off the top of his head.
Sloane Ranger
@Lalophobia: Yes. I thought it was well meaning and worthy but a bit slow and preachy. In some ways it was closer to one of the original purposes of the programme, which was to educate and inform (although AFAIK no bus needed to be stolen and no manoeuvres were needed to get James Blake to drive the route). Also, I believe Rosa Park’s action was planned as an act of civil disobedience, not the individual act of a tired woman, as portrayed.
As for voting, every British voter gets a polling card showing their polling station, the date of the election (always a Thursday for some, no doubt historical, reason) and it’she voting hours. I used to nag my brother to vote but I live in a safe Tory seat so I tend not to mention the election unless someone has said something or taken a position that leads me to think they’ll vote Labour or Liberal.
Aleta
I offer a shiny new quarter to every person in my neighborhood who will go and vote the way I say.
SectionH
@Lalophobia: Not yet. Can’t get it from iTunes for probably about another hour. The shows usually pop up about 1:30am Pacific Time. Generally I don’t worry about it until sometime resembling the next day.
Oooo, well, just got the email that it’s available. Oh my… decisions. Oh hell, I’m awake.
SectionH
dupe
SWMBO
@Ohio Mom: My son has a guardianship over him that takes away his voting rights. For years after, I had to go in and remove him from the voting rolls. My fear was that someone would vote in his name without us knowing.
My niece voted third party because she couldn’t see that much difference between the candidates. She was a low info voter who voted out of obligation to the idea of voting without much thought about consequences. She has since gotten “woke”. I have encouraged her by having my liberal friends on Facebook friend her and they have helped her in arguments on her timeline. She was getting swamped by redneck assholes and now she has people on her side. It has empowered her and made her more radical and vocal. She is getting more involved with registering others and has started posting that she’ll give rides to go vote. So I’m doing my part there by encouraging her.
I keep checking with my young friends and make sure they are registered. Then I check back to let them know about early voting and where those polling places and hours are. Little stuff. Early voting starts here tomorrow. VOTE!!
BlueGirlFromWyo
I tell my godkid, stepson, and nieces and nephews that I’ll disown them
if they don’t. Except for the “moderate” niece married to a godbothering wingnut. Don’t care if she votes.
My neighbors are Democratic leaning and conscientious about voting so I talk to them about early voting when I see them.
Other than that, Postcards4VA! Writing for Spanberger and Luria.
donnah
I’ve reminded my mom, who is 83, to check to be sure she’s still registered, and told her I’ll drive her to her polling station. She hasn’t voted in the past several elections and I want to make sure she still can.
the antibob
Small town population 1000. Home of “Live Free or Derp” NH gov Meldrim Thomson. We phone all Democrats and the Independents that we know who vote D on election day. Offer rides to those who can’t make it. We’ve been kicking Rethugs asses in this previously conservative town for 15 years. Feels good.
Ohio Mom
@SWMBO: I don’t know tons about guardianship (we did POAs for now) but is it true in every state that only people who are guardians of themselves can vote? Does it matter what variation of guardianship others hold for the disabled person?
Anyway, worth thinking about making sure family members who can’t vote aren’t on the rolls. And congrats to your niece for woking up.
Doug!
@Steve in the ATL:
Any ideas on how to stop them from voting? My neighbors are Republican too.
Aleta
@Doug!: let the air out of tires